Montreal: Vivavision has raised over $6.7 million in institutional financing, an investment president and CEO Jean-Pierre Morin says is being used exclusively to fuel the company’s international expansion, although potential acquisitions are a possibility.

The financing closed July 22 and comes from Fonds d’Action (CSN), Fonds d’investissement de la culture et des communications and Investissement Quebec. Three years ago, Vivavision raised over $3 million from 780 small investors using the SPEQ risk-capital program, sponsored by the Quebec government.

The house reported top-line revenues of $23.2 million for the 12-month period ending Jan. 31, 2003 (85% in capitalized production revenues), a more than 50% hike over the $15.2 million reported in fiscal ’02. Most of the growth comes from new international animation coproductions and from documentaries.

Pretax profits for ’03 are $781,433.

Morin says timing is an issue, but he would like to take Vivavision public with shares listed on a Canadian stock exchange. He says a public listing wouldn’t represent much additional work as the company already has extensive reporting requirements. ‘The only difference with the institutional investors is that we already knew their [‘more aggressive’] performance requirements.’

Morin, Vivavision’s founder, has built the house on top-rated youth series, starting with Watatatow, entering its 13th year of production (104 new half-hours this season budgeted at $7.5 million) for Radio-Canada, where it has an enviable audience average of 597,000. Some 350 Quebec actors and 25 screenwriters had their start with the show.

The other successful series are Macaroni tout garni, starting its sixth season on Tele-Quebec and exported widely in South and Latin America and Europe, and Ramdam, entering its third season on Tele-Quebec.

The three shows helped Vivavision secure an unprecedented 76% of this year’s Licence Fee Program funding for French-track youth programming.

Morin has brought in two experienced industry veterans to head the company’s international push: VP international affairs Marie-Josee Corbeil, a lawyer and former senior executive with Cinar Corp., and Sari Buksner, GM of Vivamondo, the company’s international presales division. Buksner was senior manager of international sales at exporter The Multimedia Group of Canada for many years.

Corbeil is responsible for production financing structures, project evaluation and coproduction partnerships.

Buksner works with Corbeil and is responsible for presales and developing branded product for clients, which also includes equity, editorial and rights-approval issues.

‘Broadcasters are more interested in talking about projects and presales than finished product because the competition has gotten so tough and everybody is looking to define their own niche market,’ says Buksner. ‘And they want to know if [we] can produce a show that corresponds to their demographics and their branding.

‘The selection process [for presales] is much tougher [than for acquisitions],’

Buksner says back-end ‘distribution has become mass marketing.’

Vivavision expects to produce nearly 400 half-hour episodes this year, says Morin.

New international production at Vivavision’s animation division, Vivatoon, headed by general manager Francois Brisson, includes Flat!, a 26 x 30 minority animation series coproduction with France’s Futurikon (The Fly) for the eight-to-12 set. It’s about 14-year-old Vincent, who one day is literally sucked into a video magazine. The series is budgeted at $10.5 million, with presales to YTV and SRC in Canada and France 3 and Disney in France. Millimages has international sales except for North and South America, which is being handled by Buksner and Vivamondo. Post is being handled in-house by Vivalogik, the company’s post/technical division.

‘The series was probably upgraded by having a coproducer,’ says Buksner.

The house’s major title at this year’s MIPCOM program market will be Brady’s Beast, a majority 26 half-hour animation series coproduction with France’s Toon Factory and Monster Care Productions of the U.K. in association with tf1, Mediatrade in Italy and ytv and Tele-Quebec in Canada. The series will be delivered in February ’04 and is from U.S. author Norman Bridwell (Clifford the Big Red Dog). The budget is in the $14-million range.

A third series, 13 half-hours of Lilly the Witch, is a $7.8-million coproduction with Trixter Productions GmbH of Germany and Ireland’s Magma Films in association with BBC and German pubcaster ZDR Television, with presales in Canada to TVOntario and Knowledge Network. Home video and TV rights have been presold in Spain, with international sales by Vivamondo. The series is the first coproduction signed under the Quebec (SODEC)-Bavarian cooperation agreement (it is, however, an official treaty copro with Ireland’s Magma) and is based on a popular German youth novel.

Projects in advanced development at Vivavision include Sam Hamwich, a 26 x 30 animation copro with David Ferguson of U.K./Germany’s TV-Loonland. Vivavision is also developing a live-action English-language tween series called The Little Haunted Mansion, a spooky sitcom concept originated at Vivavision and developed in association with France’s Marathon Productions S.A. and France 2, Ireland’s Magma and SRC. It’s slated to film as early as next spring in Ireland on a per-episode budget of about $450,000.

Pierre Pilotte is director of international sales at Vivamondo, Gilbert Crepeau is GM of Vivalogik and Luc Harvey is GM of the documentary division, Vivadoc.